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On the other side of the ice, wearing the yellow and royal blue Tre Kronor sweater, is the longest-tenured current Rangers player, forward Mika Zibanejad<\/a>.<\/p>\n All that\u2019s missing is Joe Tolleson on the PA mic and maybe a \u201cPotvin S***s\u201d chant or two because this will have a big-game Madison Square Garden vibe to it, albeit roughly 4,000 miles away in Italy.<\/p>\n Zibanejad scored a goal and added an assist Tuesday to help Sweden knock out Latvia 5-1 in the qualifier play-off. That allowed Sweden to move into the quarterfinals against the United States, the No. 2 overall seed after winning Group C with a perfect 3-0-0-0 record in the preliminary round.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Sweden was 2-1-0-0 in the prelims and missed out on a bye into the quarterfinals by one goal, losing the tiebreaker with Slovakia. Canada, the United States, Finland, and Slovakia earned byes into the quarters.<\/p>\n Mike Zibanejad leads Sweden to showdown against Rangers teammates J.T. Miller, Vincent Trocheck & Team USA Credit: New York Rangers<\/p>\n Zibanejad has five points (two goals, three assists) in four games, tied for second on Sweden<\/a>. He finished off a give-and-go with Lucas Raymond at 5:54 of the third period Tuesday to give Sweden a 4-1 lead over Latvia. It was one of three assists for Raymond, who leads Sweden with eight points (one goal, seven assists).<\/p>\n The 32-year-old Rangers forward also had the secondary assist on Gabriel Landeskog\u2019s goal 11:36 into the first period which made it 2-0 Sweden. Zibanejad sent a long shot toward the net after a Latvia turnover, and Raymond collected the puck in front, kicked it to Landeskog, and the Colorado Avalanche captain finished off the scoring play.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n It was the second multi-point game for Zibanejad<\/a>, who had a goal and an assist in Sweden\u2019s tournament-opening 5-2 win over Italy last week. It\u2019s been a continuation of his strong plat back in North America this season, where Zibanejad leads the Rangers<\/a> with 23 goals and is second with 52 points in 56 games.<\/p>\n![\"<span](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/b1b81ebbe7c1b918d156cc98c0fd08ee.jpeg\"\/)
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